Murder Most Fair: A Verity Kent Mystery

Anna Lee Huber, Kensington (AUG 31) Softcover $14.99 (384pp), 978-1-4967-2849-4

Anna Lee Huber’s Murder Most Fair is a captivating story set in post-world War I Britain.

Verity Kent was a Secret Service agent during WWI. Though sworn to secrecy by the Official Secrets Act, in Germany, Verity divulged her wartime activities to her Great Aunt Ilse during a covert mission when she used her aunt’s home as a safe house for a German deserter. Now, as Verity adjusts to post-war life and reunites with her husband, Sydney, whom she’d thought lost during the war, she receives an unexpected visit from Ilse and her maid, who’ve fled from Germany. Her undercover work placed Ilse at risk; Verity must keep her safe without violating her oath.

Verity assumes the women will be safer outside London; she’s afraid of what suspected traitor, Lord Ardmore, might do if he learns of their presence. She and Sydney take them to Verity’s ancestral home in the Yorkshire Dales. There, Verity faces animosity from family and fellow villagers, who don’t understand why she stayed away so long, especially after her brother, Rob, was killed in an aerial mission over France. When Ilse’s maid is murdered, a stranger in the village is suspected. Verity uses her war experiences to aid in her fearless approach to solving the crime, though unresolved wartime incidents and resentments make the prospect of identifying who’s responsible more complex.

In the engrossing historical mystery Murder Most Fair, the heroine’s grief, and her relationships with her also grieving family, add texture to the dramatic investigation, while era details, as of cars, fashions, medical practices, and postwar British hostility toward Germans, contribute to the fascinating backdrop. WENDY HINMAN